Epilogue
by Badicus Writicus Supremicus
Summary: Several years after the events of the Reaper War, Tali is left alone and embittered. With no outside pull or any weight in any sort of matters, she finally comes to a conclusion. Oneshot


The war was over.

_The war was over._

After all this time, the galaxy was in a true state of peace. It was all finally over. Tali almost wished it wasn't.

As monstrous as the thought was, she wished she had just ran away with Shepard. Lived out her life with him in some place far away from what was happening.

Fuck the galaxy, fuck the politicians, fuck the Reapers. Just them. Together forever, making quarian-human babies.

Seasons had came and gone. Rebellions had came and fell, rebuilding had been hard, but it was all over.

_And Shepard..._

His remains had never been found, but with how spectacularly the Citadel exploded, it was unsurprising that nothing was left.

Garrus had become the new Primarch after Victus was assassinated by hired guns. Wrex assembled the Krogan Confederation, and presided as The Chief of Clans. Liara had retired to Illium to aid in rebuilding efforts, and was rumored to be fronting Shadow Broker affairs. Vega got his N7, Jacob had his family, Williams was on the fast track to a command position within the Alliance. Grunt had become Wrex's prodigy, and adopted son. Samara had abandoned the Justicars, found her last daughter, and remained with her. Zaeed settled down, and in the wake of all that had happened, simply decided that he was done fighting for a while... He had been elected as the governor of a small town in Australia. Jack remained in the Alliance, and Miranda had been begrudgingly accepted as an Alliance commander (after several months of being monitored for terrorist and rebellion ties), but Javik...

Javik had the right idea.

After the war and rebellions, he withdrew, went to the place he was forced to kill his comrades at.

And he rejoined them.

It had been seven years since Shepard left... Years in which she had been able to do nothing. Years in which she couldn't do anything. Just stagger around with the weight of a thousand suns on her shoulders. Pressing down, and suffocating her until every waking moment was a struggle to simply _exist_.

She had withdrawn from everyone, kept no contacts after she had played her part in quashing the rebellions and creating a new home.

_I have a home. Come back to me, please._

She hadn't built a home... That was a misnomer. She had built homes, but none for her.

Shepard had promised to build her a home. Her father had promised to build her a home. They said it would be done on The Homeworld.

But it was not to be.

Tali looked about her small house, a token for her service.

She saw how threadbare, cold, and empty it was.

Ironic really, how she thought for all her life that when she got to The Homeworld everything would be perfect. She used to have everything she now desperately craved.

Tali'Zorah vas Normandy she was, Tali'Zorah vas Normandy she _is_. Many had opted to create new clan names, or to ressurrect old ones. Few people kept the names of their ships.

Tali didn't change hers. She was of the Normandy, and no where else.

But it was gone now. Retired. Made into a memorial. The great empty corpse of a ship once teeming with life. What the Normandy had once been was now vaporized, much like Shepard.

Ashes, what he was reduced to. Ashes: what was kept from the Normandy, though her Captain was nothing more. A great jutting bone, forcing its way through the steely carapace of the new galaxy.

A scar that should be smoothed over, much as the fighters of the Reaper War would soon be.

Tali sighed, the chest shattering pain she felt began to pull her back to the world.

She looked about her small house again, and fixated on her desk. She shambled over to it, plopped into her chair, and simply sat.

She sat for a while, and watched a photo of hers. It was one of the last she had taken with Shepard.

From the Citadel party, in the morning.

She felt a choked laugh worm it's way through her throat, and wrench itself out of her lips. The chuckle rattled and wheezed out of her mouth as tears began to fall freely from her eyes.

She still had that stupid omni-tattoo.

Soon, her laugh grew in volume, until she was in the throes of a great hysterical episode.

Finally, all the pieces fell into place.

No one would miss her, right? At least, that's what the silvery voice that snaked through her mind like a great horned serpent had whispered.

She was just a token, now. A relic of a different time. There was no Admiralty board, she had no say in her people's government. She had cut off ties with everyone else a while ago. Primarch Vakarian, The Chief of Clans, Officer Lawson, Sergeant Nought, Urdnot Grunt, Liara, and anyone and everyone else...

They didn't know.

_ They wouldn't care._

That great horned serpent twisted and contorted through her mind, softly filling it with the poison... No, with the antidote. The great horned serpent filled her with the antidote to her great ailment.

It gave her the strength to do what was necessary. Tali'Zorah vas Normandy plodded into her bedroom, fell to her knees, and dug under the mattress, looking for her tool.

_There it was._

She smiled ever so slightly as she pulled out a pistol. An M5 Phalanx. A gift from Shepard back when she first was put on the SR-2.

It was a good gun, and it had served her well for many years. This was the last time that the chipped, battered weapon would be called upon.

The serpent took shape within her mind once more, uttering hollow words of comfort, but now there was no doubt in Tali's mind. Even if that horned beast was to try to stop her now, it would have no success.

This thought, this great, beautiful thought had raked its talons through her mind many times before. But this time, it was so tangible and awake and loud and positively _alive _that she knew there was no going back from what was to be done.

She was going home. To where the Normandy resided, and where Shepard and her father surely had made her abode.

Tali's hands shook with serenity as she shambled back to the desk with her precious, beautiful tool in tow. She leaned over her desk chair and looked at the photo, caressing it absentmindedly.

She gathered it in her hands, and sat on the small couch on the side of her living room.

She remembered Shepard. Such a beautiful speaker, and an even more beautiful man. He spoke to every species, saved each one from themselves. He spoke to The Illusive Man, and left him in the dust with no Collector Base, and even less luck.

He foiled Sovereign, the Heretics, Saren, the Genophage, the Quarian-Geth Wars, and finally had destroyed the Reapers themselves.

Tali smiled, tears streaking down her face for the last time.

She laughed, for the first time in years in a truly carefree way. She brought her gift level to the side of her head, still staring into the picture with bleary eyes.

Her finger twitched, and sweet liberation came.

And thus, the last Reaper carried out his grim duty, and whisked Tali'Zorah vas _Normandy _off to her new home.

And thus, one more scar was smoothed over.


End file.
